Report: Eagles now see firing Juan Castillo as a “miscalculation”

Posted by Curtis Crabtree on November 6, 2012, 2:44 AM EDT

Reuters

After two late collapses to the Pittsburgh Steelers and Detroit Lions, the Philadelphia Eagles fired defensive coordinator Juan Castillo. Two more losses have pushed the losing streak to four and the Eagles’ season to the brink of disaster. With a 28-13 loss to the New Orleans Saints on Monday night, the Eagles find themselves at 3-5 after an encouraging start to the year.

According to Jeff McLane of the Philadelphia Inquirer, at least one member of the Eagles’ staff feels the decision to fire Castillo was a mistake. Per the report, one of the Eagles’ “decision makers” called the firing “a miscalculation.”

Defensive backs coach Todd Bowles was promoted to defensive coordinator following Castillo’s firing. The defense has not improved since the change. Philadelphia has allowed 58 points and over 370 yards a game in the last two games in losses to the Saints and Atlanta Falcons.

According to Jeff McLane of the Philadelphia Inquirer, at least one member of the Eagles’ staff feels the decision to fire Castillo was a mistake. Per the report, one of the Eagles’ “decision makers” called the firing “a miscalculation.”

What would reporters be without unnamed sources…I know it happens and at times it’s the way Major stories are broken but should it be used for just useless gossip? In theory you could write whatever you think or feel because we have to take your word you actually talked to someone in the know.

Look, I’m a Giants fan, but 1) the offense hasn’t been doing the team as a whole any favors and 2) 370 yards between two games comes out to 185 yards allowed per game. Why are you including that stat as some glaring negative? If anything it suggests short fields being given to the opponent on account of turnovers.

I think player performance is as much an issue as coaching. How many yards after contact can you allow? How many times can the O-Line be set up to pick up the blitzer, and simply not be able to? How many times is Vick going to give the other team the ball?

I have said all along — and I am a Giants fan, who is unwittingly subjected to Eagles games every week, so I see it — their defense is the reason they’re not 0-8 to begin with. It’s the only reason they were in position to drive the field and win last minute vs. Cleveland. They, along with Dallas on opening night when the whole nation knew the Giants were rusty and just going through the motions, were the only ones to hold the Giants to under 20 points this season, and they were certainly sloppy beyond belief offensively and would have lost that game to the Ravens 9 out of 10 times with the same performance. Three games, what, 5 points total margin of victory in three wins, all because their defense held the opponent to 16, 17 and whatever the Ravens had, 17?

Castillo was the scapegoat. Everyone knows it. Andy Reid even LOOKS panicky on the sidelines now. Bowles isn’t going to make this defense any better, because quite frankly, there are too many disjointed parts on defense. Cole can be taken out of games. Babin is a complete non-factor against the run, their defensive tackles don’t stay in their rushing lanes, which makes them and the linebackers behind them (who overpursue more than any other unit that I’ve seen in the NFL the past 3-4 years) susceptible to the gashing runs that you saw once again tonight. Then that pricey secondary, where the only guy who is playing well is DRC. Asomugha was always overrated, but he’s better in press coverage, and because of the issues with their defensive ends (more so Babin than Cole, obviously), Asomugha is literally caught in no man’s land against teams with QBs who audible and make quick reads, and have the WRs to take advantage. Coleman is a wannabe tough guy and is honestly too small and slow to be playing SS, and Nate Allen can’t stay healthy and is not someone teams game planned for at free, anyway. Individually, there is talent, but the sum of the parts is actually disjointed and subpar than the individuals standing alone.

Whereas the Falcons, with no real studs on offense other than Julio Jones (Roddy White is a compiler) and arguably only Sean Weatherspoon as a real impact guy on defense, are better collectively than they are individually. You can say the coordinator’s job is to communicate with the position/unit coaches and bring it all together schematically, but when your defensive line coach is off doing his own thing, and it is antithetical to that which your LB and DB coaches are doing, they’ll post some decent numbers overall, but look very bad in several spots as well. And that’s why a defense that doesn’t yield all that many points, but gets gashed yardage-wise every week, is supposedly so bad. I just don’t think Castillo was the issue. Their position coaches are not on the same page. That 9 technique exposes their below-average to average LBs and now you’re putting a lot of pressure on your back seven to not only cover, but quickly react to some guy already on the second level running full speed when there ISN’T a pass play.

You just cannot do that in today’s NFL. If anyone should have been fired, it should have been Jim Washburn. And I hate the Eagles, but if you want to point fingers, Castillo wasn’t the one. Bowles is just collateral damage at this point.

Otherwise, the most glaring issue overall with that team is their offensive line, and until that gets fixed, this team is not going to be anything more than a big play here and there (and further between here and there lately) from Vick, Jackson or McCoy, and cannot sustain drives.

As a Giants fan watching my guys over the past month, only the “luck” that we purportedly have is the reason why we too have not lost three or four straight, because our offense cannot sustain drives, and offensive line play (Dave Diehl) was the chief reason yesterday.

I think the best thing for Reid is to get fired. Not because he is a bad coach but because he needs a fresh start like Jeff Fisher. Too much has happened in Philly and its time for a new beginning. Its been too much of a train wreck with McNabb, T.O., Vick, DeSean, Asante, Vince Young, his kid dieing, NFC Title losses, SuperBowl loss, etc. Reid needs to start over for his own good. Take over a team with some talent like the Chargers or Cowboys. Or rebuild a franchise like Jeff Fisher is. I’m tired of seeing Reid in Philly and I would like to see him somewhere new. I’m just a casual fan and not a fan of any of the teams mentioned in my opinion.

amanitoomerisgod says:
Nov 6, 2012 3:05 AM
Look, I’m a Giants fan, but 1) the offense hasn’t been doing the team as a whole any favors and 2) 370 yards between two games comes out to 185 yards allowed per game. Why are you including that stat as some glaring negative? If anything it suggests short fields being given to the opponent on account of turnovers.
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Misprint on PFT. Should be “over 370 yards PER GAME in the last 2 games”.

Look, I’m a Giants fan, but 1) the offense hasn’t been doing the team as a whole any favors and 2) 370 yards between two games comes out to 185 yards allowed per game. Why are you including that stat as some glaring negative? If anything it suggests short fields being given to the opponent on account of turnovers.//

What he meant is that the Eagles are giving up 370 PER GAME since Todd Bowles took over. That’s not acceptable.

And as far as the Castillo firing goes, it definitely was a mistake. He never should have been moved from O-Line coach in the first place, but I think it’s pretty obvious that he wasn’t the (only) problem this year.

Castillo never should’ve been made the D Coordinator in the first place but was not the only problem.

The teams the Eagles have played the last 2 weeks are the 2 highest scoring teams the eagles will play all year (barring the Giants). The Saints are averaging 27.2 points a game on offense. If you take away the Vick pick 6, the defense only gave up 21 points which is pretty good. You take away the pick 6 and the eagles have a chance to win the game.

It was a grave error from the start promoting an offensive line coach to D. Coord. However, firing him was the not the resolution to the teams problems. Last time I checked, Castillo was not in charge of the underachieving offense. Just an overrated defense.

I think Reid leaves after this year either way. I would assume the owners will allow him to save some face and resign. Andy needs a year off to recharge his batteries. Last year’s underachieving, losing his son, and now this season has to be overwhelming emotionally to Andy. He has earned a break and I hope he takes one and starts anew in 2014.

Idiots, of course it was the wrong move. The defense had never been the real problem. Castillo was just a scape goat. So obvious. I hate to sound like a couch GM. But… I really don’t see the difficulties with managing a team. To much buddy buddy crap. The successful blueprint is out there already. Just follow it. Example. Don’t hire Romeo Crennel. (KC) Dumb idea. I swear. Why do theses people get paid so much. And how did they make it this far?

It wasn’t exactly a miscalculation, but Boles definitely looks even more in over his head than even Castillo (is that possible).

The bigger miscalculation is the defensive personnel, or the entire team’s personnel for that matter.

Trent Cole has gone from the most underrated defensive lineman in football to washed up overnight, and the rest of the vaunted defensive line is just as bad. The LBs are better than last year, but now the defensive line is horrible.

Asomugha and Rogers-Cromarti are average at best with Asomugha being a big disappointment since he’s become an Eagle. He was legitimately a top notch corner in Oakland, but he’s far from that now.

Don’t even start with the offense, which starts with that horrid offensive line.

Mr. Wright I gotta give you the props that is lacking in this thread since your post. You nailed it exactly right. This failing is completely systemic at this point and no clue where to start exactly to fix it. Too easy to point at Vick and his turnovers but the line stinks. The other side of the like stinks with the backers and secondary. The play calling for both is horrendous. The special teams does nothing good.

It’s amazing that the offensive play calling can be so mind boggling yet so absolutely predictable at the same time. The Celek INT was off the same play they used that far out against the falcons and lions and the saints were looking for it. The Eagles lined up with split backs once for what play? O yeah that shovel play. Reid and Marty think they are the smartest people in the room but everyone knows the book on them now and the jokes on them. Makes being an Eagles fan so hard anymore

Andy Reid the coach is, and has been, highly overrated. He is a terrible game day manager, his clock management is atrocious, and his arrogance prevents him from using what works (the running game)…situational football.

Andy Reid’s personnel decisions have been very poor, particularly in recent years. Other than Brian Westbrook, the players he has pushed to bring in have been busts.

Maybe the Eagles can hire Jerry Sandusky as their defensive coordinator once he serves his time. Just like all the Vick apologist say…”he served his time”. the same should apply for Sandusky. he was a great defensive coordiantor at one point. Vick was never even a great qb at any point…

That story probably came from “take the wind Marty”. Castillo might have been improving but he never should have been hired in the first place. You don’t have time for training wheels in the NFL. The miss calculation was not firing Reid last year.

I’m glad Castillo can be vindicated somewhat. Blaming him was compeltely unfair. If anything it now looks like he made the defense better rather than being a reason for them not being as good as people expected.

boy, after watching the eagles played last night, i’m thankful that vick was still able to walk out of the stadium on his own. What was it? 8 (or 7) sacks? c’mon man. O-line was bad. secondary was horrible… So who’s next in line to be fired?

They, along with Dallas on opening night when the whole nation knew the Giants were rusty and just going through the motions
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LOL, youre seriously pinning the Giants loss opening night on being “rusty” and “going through the motions”????? Opening night at home when they get their rings vs. a division opponent???

Pathetic.

You were right about one thing though, it was “luck” that has kept the Giants from losing 3 straight… they didnt deserve to beat Skins or Dallas. Thank the refs, Cowboys handing over 6 turnovers and Dez Bryant’s pinky.

I couldn’t help but notice you were nowhere to be found after the Steelers pounded NY even though Goodell was in the house and tried his hardest to give the Giants the game with 14 points off the bat.

I’ve been on here like always, boy. Don’t even try to pull that line. And as I said before, the only missed call was the hit on Rainey. Whiny limpwrists would have cried “conspiracy” regardless of anything positive for the Giants. Goodell had something to do with Boley’s INT and Tuck getting tackled on the play that set up the FG before halftime?